This invention relates to semiconductor materials and in particularly to silicon carbide and techniques for reducing micropipes in silicon carbide semiconductor material.
As one can ascertain, silicon carbide (SiC) is an excellent material for high temperature applications. For example, the use of silicon carbide in a pressure transducer application is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,782 entitled, xe2x80x9cHermetically Sealed Ultra High Temperature Silicon Carbide Pressure Transducers and Methods for Fabricating the Samexe2x80x9d, which issued on May 9, 2000 to A. D. Kurtz et al. and is assigned to the assignee herein, Kulite Semiconductor Products, Inc. It has also been established that SiC is an excellent piezoresistive material. This can be ascertained also by reference to the above-noted patent.
Also, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,001 entitled, xe2x80x9cMethod for Etching a Silicon Carbide Semiconductor Using Selective Etching of Different Conductivity Typesxe2x80x9d which issued on Mar. 7, 2000 to A. D. Kurtz et al. and is assigned to the assignee herein.
Thus, in view of the above art, silicon carbide can be, and is presently being used for forming mechanical diaphragms and piezoresistive sensing elements. The piezoresistive sensing elements can be grown directly on a bulk SiC substrate forming a p-n junction type device. These devices are known in the prior art and are shown, for example, herein in FIGS. 1A and 1B.
Other piezoresistive elements can be bonded to a dielectrically isolated bulk silicon carbide material using any one of conventional bonding and etch back techniques. Such devices and techniques are shown in FIG. 2, for example see FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C. These techniques produce a dielectrically isolated type of device. For a dielectrically isolated device, one normally uses 6Hxe2x80x94SiC, 4Hxe2x80x94SiC, 3Cxe2x80x94SiC or any other type of SiC available to form piezoresistors and then uses a separate 6Hxe2x80x94SiC or 4Hxe2x80x94SiC for micromachining diaphragms. The micromachining of diaphragms is also well known and reference can be made to the above-noted patents, for example.
See also a co-pending application entitled, xe2x80x9cHigh Temperature Sensors Utilizing Doping Controlled, Dielectrically Isolated Beta Silicon Carbide (SiC) Sensing Elements on a Specifically Selected High Temperature Force Collectin Membranexe2x80x9d, filed on Nov. 2, 2001, having Ser. No. 10/008,313, wich specification is incorporated herein by reference.
In any event, all of the 6Hxe2x80x94SiC and the 4Hxe2x80x94SiC material produced contains a certain amount of micropipes. A micropipe is a very small hole about 0.5 to 10 microns which actually projects through the wafer. These micropipes are dispersed per unit area. Three techniques for producing SiC are: 1) Lely growth, 2) Seeded sublimation growth, and 3) CVD or chemical vapor deposition. All of these techniques result in a certain amount of micropipes in the produced bulk SiC material. The high temperature CVD (HTCVD) process is used for growing bulk SiC material of improved quality, but does not eliminate micropipes.
The presence of micropipes in the semiconductor material presents a number of problems. The first problem is electrical in nature, where the electrical performance of the semiconductor suffers as a result of the micropipes. This problem is especially troublesome in the making of minority carrier devices, but does not present a serious problem in the making of majority carrier devices, such as piezoresistive pressure sensors.
The second problem is mechanical in nature, where the presence of micropipes in the sensing membrane enables air and other gases to penetrate through the bulk material. This is a serious problem in the fabrication of pressure sensors where the sensing diaphragm micromachined in SiC cannot allow any gases to penetrate through at all. The presence of micropipes also introduces stress raisers in the material, thus leading to the premature fracture of formed diaphragms.
In order to enable the use of bulk SiC as a diaphragm material for different pressure measurement, the problem of micropipes must be solved. One technique previously developed and presently used is to drastically oxidize the SiC to a point at which the micropipes effectively close. The ability to close micropipes using oxidation is attributed to the fact the during the oxidation process about half of the oxide is formed within the silicon carbide while the other half grows on top of the silicon carbide material. The part that grows on top of the SiC effectively shrinks the diameter of the micropipe to the point at which gases cannot get through.
The oxidizing technique, although enabling one to close the micropipes, does have a number of limitations. First, it is very difficult to oxidize SiC, since it takes a very long time to close even the smallest of the micropipes. Second, the bigger micropipes may never be closed by oxidation, thus leaving a fraction of the expensive SiC wafer unusable.
In the present invention, one sputters or otherwise deposits or grows a layer of silicon on the backside of the micromachined diaphragm. This is followed by an oxidation process. In this approach, the deposition of silicon, in itself, reduces or completely plugs the micropipes. After the silicon deposition, the wafer is oxidized, which completely closes the otherwise reduced micropipes. Since the oxidation process is significantly faster in silicon than in SiC, it is significantly easier to close even the largest of the micropipes. The thickness of the silicon, the process of depositing or growing silicon, and the process of oxidation can be adjusted to close micropipes in different SiC materials.
The unanticipated advantage of the present invention is that one can sputter, or otherwise deposit silicon on both sides of the micromachined SiC material and then perform the oxidation process. Once the SiC substrate is oxidized, and the silicon converted into oxide, the front side oxide is used as an insulating layer suitable for the dielectrically isolated process stated above. The silicon, which is converted into oxide on the backside will close the micropipes. Then a preprocessed piezoresistive pattern formed from 3C on silicon, 6H, 4H or other type of silicon carbide can be used to bond to the front side oxide layer. Once the bond takes place, the backside of the pattern wafer can be thinned down, using either lapping and polishing or etching techniques, until only the thin piezoresistive 3C, 6H or 4H pattern layer remains on bonded to the oxide below. This results in a dielectrically isolated piezoresistor pattern on SiC diaphragms, as well as having a completely sealed back surface. This provides an improved high temperature device.